Topic: Explain the Schoeps "V" capsules to me?

[taperdave1998]

Just wondering what the appeal is? If they're just side-address versions of the MK4, MK41, etc. capsules, what benefit does that produce? I'd think it would be a little harder to measure angles for ORTF and whatnot without having the mic bodies running parallel to the face of the capsules. Easier to stealth? Enlighten me, tapeheads!

[ero3030]

1999 panic tapes and string cheese recordings. 

[noahbickart]

Some people prefer the sound of the v caps to the regular. I prefer them because it makes angling the capsules to the stacks much easier

[goodcooker]

The vertical capsules 4V and 41V have a slight bump in the presence range that give distance mic placement more pleasing results. Schoeps refers to it as a "Mild high-frequency elevation" for both caps.

https://schoeps.de/en/products/colette/capsules/cardioids/mk-4v.html

https://schoeps.de/en/products/colette/capsules/supercardioids/mk-41v.html

Some hat tapers like them because you can put them in an ORTF mount for end address capsules and place that inside the hat - running them "backwards". It gives a good config for undercover stuff or if you want to be real low pro in the sweet spot because the only place to open tape from is off in the corner under the balcony or by the bar trash cans.

[EmRR]

Yep, a case of the orientation within the head basket and the associated resonances producing a slightly different outcome.   People reproducing old classic mics (U47, etc), get really obsessed with head basket dimensions and materials, the specifics of the grill screens, etc. 

[DSatz]

There's a difference in polar response at high frequencies that can matter in certain recording environments, depending on the character of the reflected / diffuse sound energy. It's in the region of 8 - 10 - 12 kHz mostly. Cardioid and supercardioid condenser microphones pretty much all tend to have some response elevation off-axis relative to their 0-degree response; these two "V" capsules have distinctly less of that elevation than their "non-V" counterparts.

Now, the 0-degree response at high frequencies of these two "V" capsules isn't as flat as in their "non-V" counterparts, so that's a factor as well. The MK 4 V, for example, is very useful when you can't mike quite as closely as you might prefer.

But the farther your mikes are from the actual sound sources, the greater the proportion of sound you'll pick up from off-axis, and the more that slight difference in polar pattern will matter to the overall sound impression.

Back when Schoeps used to make a three-pattern capsule (omni, cardioid, figure-8), the MK 6, I was a huge fan of the way it sounded in the cardioid setting (as are/were many other people from what I hear). A big part of that was because it had less off-axis high-frequency rise than the forward-facing MK 4 or MK 5. No currently-available cardioid capsule has quite those same characteristics, unfortunately.